


Ten Things Learned in Narnia (and one that wasn't)

by Kazzy



Category: Chronicles of Narnia - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-14
Updated: 2012-03-14
Packaged: 2017-11-01 22:28:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/361973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kazzy/pseuds/Kazzy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ten things learned in Narnia and the people who learned them. One thing that someone else failed to learn.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ten Things Learned in Narnia (and one that wasn't)

**Author's Note:**

> Ten things, but not ten people. There is no particular form or order to these, they just are.  
> Spoilers for all seven books.  
> Disclaimer - Not mine.

**  
I. Friendship**

Two children, both lonely and forgotten find each other and because they have nothing better to do, they become friends. Two (maybe three) adventures later, where there were new worlds and witches and lions and magic apples, Polly and Digory share a secret that remains between them until four children stumble through a wardrobe. 

~~~~~~  
Many years later – or many centuries later – two more children who are lonely and little forgotten find each other. It takes a lion and a quest and a marsh-wiggle and a witch before they are friends. But together Jill and Eustace are stronger than giants, enchantments, strange underworlders – and bullies.  
 **  
II. Sailing**

Edmund won’t be the king remembered as ‘The Seafarer’, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t love sailing. And being a king doesn’t stop him from helping out on deck. But Susan does object when he starts swearing like his new friends.  
 **  
III. Dancing**

Aravis has always loved to dance, but she isn’t sure what to make of this strange Northern music at all. The participants move in and out and around without regard to form or style or step. They twirl and twist and spin in a way that is completely foreign to her. And Cor...Cor is graceless and clumsy, stumbling and tripping around the other dancers with no real idea of rhythm or beat.

But he is laughing and his eyes are full of more joy and life than she has ever seen. So when he offers her his hand, she takes it willingly.

~~~~~~  
She is long grown and well married. She has children who are happy and healthy and have children of their own. And it has been so long since she was last in Narnia and so long since she last lost her world. But as she looks out across the ballroom she remembers. 

Soft grass beneath her feet; the steady beat of drums mingling with the soft piping of the flutes; the smell of wood smoke; and being lead in a very different sort of dance where there are no steps to learn.

Just for a moment Susan allows herself to close her eyes and make herself a promise.

Soon.  
 **  
IV. Selflessness**

Lucy’s sorrow provides the first glimmer of understanding: he’s never had anyone feel hurt for him. Until that moment Eustace wanted to be human again because being a dragon is lonely, but now he has an entirely different reason. Lucy has been so kind to him – even when he was perfectly beastly to her – she shouldn’t now be hurt because of him. He wishes he could tell her that she mustn’t cry for him, so when he can, he does.

She just laughs through a fresh set of tears and tells him he was worth every one and she’s glad that Aslan gave him back.  
 **  
V. Archery**

Almost all of them learn to shoot in Narnia.

Susan with her bow draws a crowd. She shoots with accuracy and grace – the most deadly of them all.

Peter and Edmund take to archery grudgingly and are rarely in a position to use it. On the battlefield they use their swords and if a need for food arises others do the hunting and killing.

Lucy uses it because it allows her to ride into battle.

For Eustace and Jill it is a tool. They are in Narnia for such short periods of time they are not excellent with the bow, but they do well enough to feed themselves.  
 **  
VI. Courage**

Caspian has never really been sure he wanted to be king, but faced with an army ready to die to make him so, he realises he is the only one who can be. Nevertheless, when they give him the throne and he sees the task before him of uniting two peoples in something other than mutual fear and resentment he nearly gives it back. Nearly.

~~~~~  
Once there was a boy who was silly, selfish, uneducated and rude, but also kind, humble, strong and brave who allowed himself to be kidnapped by a horse. Before he could find his family he had to face lions, an arrogant Tarkheena, foreign kings, haunted tombs, a desert, a battle, and many other adventures besides. He even saved an entire country before he knew he was its prince.

As he speaks his father’s eulogy and lights the funeral pyre, the man who will be remembered as Ram the Great wonders if he has even a fraction of the courage his father showed as a boy.  
 **  
VII. Swimming**

Lucy falls overboard on their first trip to Galma and nearly drowns before she can be pulled out. A badly frightened Peter insists (almost immediately on their return to Narnia) that Susan teach her to swim. She enjoys the buoyancy once she knows how to float, but always prefers to be over the water rather than in it.  
 **  
VIII. Grief**

Grief is:  
Two girls huddled against the still body of a lion, knowing that as dawn approaches so does war.  
Rilian restored after ten years of enchantment only to see his father die.  
Four children coming home to discover that all their friends died thirteen hundred years ago.  
Mr. Tumnus realising that Lucy really isn’t returning from Ward Drobe.  
Susan losing everyone who was ever important to her in a single moment.  
Caspian searching for his son, mourning his lost wife, and repeating to himself the story of how the lost prince of Archenland found his way back to _his_ father.  
Aslan watching His children suffer knowing that sometimes it’s necessary.  
 **  
IX. Forgiveness**

When the Lion asks him what he did and why he did it, it doesn’t occur to Edmund (tired hungry and miserable) to lie. When Aslan asks him if he’s willing to do whatever it takes to make it right, there is only one possible answer. But it isn’t until Lucy’s arms wrap around him fiercely that he realises that it’s possible to be forgiven.

~~~~~~  
A million apologies sit on Rilian’s tongue but before he can even speak his father simply reaches out a shaking hand and presses it to his cheek whispering, “Thank you.”  
 **  
X. Sword play**

Peter slips in mud as he desperately tries to keep his feet. Around him the battle rages a mixture of rain, blood, roar, crash. He remembers this about battle: confusion, fear, rage mingling to become desperation which is not about winning but about staying alive. 

The sword in his hand is awkward and slippery as he raises it to block a blow here and deliver one there. Already he understands why he was drilled and drilled until he could just about perform sword movements in his sleep as here there is no time to pause and think.

The next morning, he rises from his bed aching and tired and takes Rhindon and drills himself until Lucy has a centaur forcibly disarm him.  
 **  
I. Life**

She does everything in her power to rule her world – including destroying everything in it. But ruling over rocks and dust and wax-like figures provides little satisfaction. When the opportunity presents itself, she follows two children to a brand new world in the hopes that she can rule there. 

She eats an apple that will allow her to live forever and wages war on her new enemies. Here it pleases her to turn them to stone, because it frightens them and in death they are far too peaceful. She doesn’t understand why they die willingly for their cause.

Jadis will never know that they are welcomed at an open gate she had to climb over.


End file.
